The Date-A-Base Book 2015 Copyright © Dave and Kate Haslett 2014 First published in Great Britain in 2014 by ideas4writers 2a New Street Cullompton Devon EX15 1HA The right of Dave and Kate Haslett to be identified as the authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 All rights reserved No part of this publication may be stored, copied or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the authors Please help support ideas4writers by telling people about this book! Introduction Welcome to the eighth edition of The Date-A-Base Book! As always, every entry has been cross-checked in Encyclopaedia Britannica and on official websites and other sources. This is not an easy process as there’s an awful lot of “disinformation” out there, and it’s definitely getting worse. Whenever there was doubt – which there frequently was – we’ve tried to go back to the original source. Even so, we advise you to double-check each date before using it, and satisfy yourself that it is 100% correct. If you come across any mistakes please let us know. We’ll post any corrections we hear about on the official ideas4writers blog: http://ideas4writers.wordpress.com As far as possible we’ve used New Style (NS) dates from the Gregorian calendar. Celebrities are notorious for knocking a few years off their ages. Wherever possible we’ve given both their real and claimed dates of birth, and noted which is which. Similarly, they don’t always go by their real names, so we’ve used the names by which they are most commonly known. Their real names can easily be found in Encyclopaedia Britannica, Wikipedia, and other sources. With such a vast number of worthy people to choose from, we elected to list only those who are included in Encyclopaedia Britannica, or those we’ve definitely heard of. We apologise if a few non-British household names didn’t make the final cut. We have generally not included living people, except for royalty, prime ministers and presidents. It was not possible to include every significant event from every war. We’ve chosen what we think are the main ones, but if we’ve left out something that you think should have been included please let us know. How to use this book The Ann. column gives the anniversary of each entry, so 750 means the 750th anniversary of that event. The date on which the event took place is listed next, followed by a brief description. The most obvious way to use this book is to choose the entries that interest you, then write news reports, newspaper and magazine articles, short stories, novels, essays, stage plays, screenplays, poems, jokes, non-fiction books, guidebooks, biographies, TV/ radio features, and so on about them. But how about thinking ‘outside the box’? For example, you might try to see the event through the eyes of someone who was there at the time. Or think about how the world might have been different if that person hadn’t been born or had done something else, or if an event hadn’t taken place, or if it had happened in a different way. You could also use an event, or a series of them, as background detail in a novel or screenplay. Have your characters think about the events, and talk about them. Perhaps they could influence the event, or be influenced by it. What most publishers, broadcasters and producers are looking for is something original; something that hasn’t been done before. They don’t want the same old summary of a person’s life, or a potted history and timeline of an event. They can probably write that in-house anyway, using their own staff writers – though it’s always worth making an enquiry, just in case. But you’ll usually have more success if you aim to provide them with something different, more compelling, a new angle; something that ties in with the date of the event, but which can run alongside their more general features. If you’re writing about a person, don’t just focus on his accomplishments; have a look at the other things going on in his life: problems, interests, hobbies, associations, relatives and relationships, fans, and so on. See if you can tie that in with one of your own areas of interest – you probably already read publications and visit websites related to that interest, so that is the market to aim for. See if you can relate the item to something from your own life, or use it as a trigger to set off a series of memories and reminiscences that could lead to a new writing project. If you haven’t written much before, or have never had anything published, try using the item as a starting point and write a letter about it to the editor of your local newspaper or your favourite magazine. Then see if you can get the coveted ‘star letter’ slot. Once you’ve achieved that, move on to other things such as short articles. Don’t limit yourself to printed publications. There are plenty of online publications that need writers, and some of them will even pay you. And don’t limit yourself to your own country – there’s a whole world out there that’s interested in what you have to say. Timing is important too, of course. You need to start work well in advance of the anniversary, so that your finished piece of writing appears in print – or on stage or screen – at exactly the right time. Most magazines work several months in advance, and if you’re writing for the stage or screen you might need to have your script ready more than a year before the anniversary occurs. So you should look at getting the next edition of The Date-A-Base Book as soon as it becomes available! Dave and Kate Haslett [email protected] The Date-A-Base Book 2015 JANUARY 2015 Ann. Date Event 750 20 Jan 1265 The first English parliament was convened in Westminster Hall (now Westminster Palace), London by Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester. (It was dissolved by King Henry III on 15th Feb.) 500 1 Jan 1515 Death of King Louis XII of France; succeeded by Francis I. 400 14 Jan 1615 Birth of John Biddle, controversial English theologian, known as ‘the father of English Unitarianism’. 400 25 Jan 1615 Birth of Govert Flinck, Dutch Baroque artist, particularly known for his portraits. Influenced by Rembrandt. 400 31 Jan 1615 Death of Claudio Aquaviva, Italian Jesuit priest. A highly regarded leader of the Society of Jesus. 300 26 Jan 1715 Birth of Claude-Adrien Helvétius, French philosopher. (or 26 Feb?) 200 1 Jan 1815 Birth of Charles Bernard Renouvier, French neocritical philosopher. 200 3 Jan 1815 Austria, Britain and France signed a secret defence treaty, pledging mutual assistance if any of them were attacked by Prussia or Russia. 200 8 Jan 1815 War of 1812 – the Battle of New Orleans; U.S. Victory. The last major battle of the war. 200 11 Jan 1815 Birth of Sir John Macdonald, 1st Prime Minister of Canada. 200 13 Jan 1815 War of 1812 – the Battle of Fort Peter, St. Marys, Georgia; (to 14th) the only battle of this war to take place in Georgia; British victory. 200 15 Jan 1815 Death of Emma, Lady Hamilton, mistress of British naval hero Lord Nelson. 200 16 Jan 1815 Birth of Henry W. Halleck, (‘Old Brains’), U.S. Army general during the Civil War. 200 18 Jan 1815 Birth of Constantin (also spelled Konstantin) von Tischendorf, German biblical scholar who discovered the Codex Sinaiticus and deciphered the Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus. 200 21 Jan 1815 Birth of Horace Wells, American dentist who pioneered the use of surgical anaesthesia. 200 21 Jan 1815 Death of Matthias Claudius, German poet. 200 30 Jan 1815 U.S. Congress approved the purchase of former President Thomas Jefferson’s collection of 6,487 books, replacing those lost when the Library of Congress was destroyed in the War of 1812. (The collection was housed in a hotel until 1824 when it was moved back to the Capitol.) 175 1 Jan 1840 The first indoor bowling alley in the USA opened at Knickerbocker Alleys in New York City, and the first recorded bowling match in the USA was played there. (9 pins were used, whereas today’s game uses 10 pins.) 175 3 Jan 1840 British naval officer and explorer James Clark Ross carried out the first deep-sea sounding. He used a sounding weight to measure the depth of the ocean near Antarctica and reached a depth of 3,700m (12,140 feet). 175 10 Jan 1840 The Penny Post was established throughout the UK. 175 13 Jan 1840 The U.S. paddle steamer Lexington caught fire and sank off Long Island, (to 14th) New York, killing 139 people. www.ideas4writers.co.uk © ideas4writers 2014 5 The Date-A-Base Book 2015 JANUARY 2015 Ann. Date Event 175 22 Jan 1840 The first British colonists to New Zealand arrived at Port Nicholson (now Wellington Harbour) and established a settlement. (The ground proved too swampy to build on, and the settlement, then known as Britannia, was relocated to the present site of Wellington later that year.) 175 22 Jan 1840 A French expedition led by Jules Dumont d’Urville first sighted ? Antarctica. The area is now known as Adélie Land, named after his wife.